Separated Self
by Moonchild10
Summary: A decade after the team splits, the 4 remaining ex-Titans are reunited at their former leader's funeral. Is it possible to accept the past and pave the way for a new future? [BBRae]


**Disclaimer: I will never own any part of Teen Titans, no matter how much I pace outside the animation studio with a giant plate of nachos. **

_**This story is dedicated to The Gnostic. TY so much for helping me so much with writing and so many other things. You are a great friend! I wrote this in early March but never got around to posting it until you showed so much faith in my writing. **_

**Sorry if the first chapter rushes into things. The rest will be better, I promise. **

**I also apologize for the fact that I won't be updating as much as I could on this. My fic 'World Through My Eyes' takes up most of my writing time and it's my 'baby', so to speak, so this fic might not get as much attention as it should, for a while. **

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"Good morning Jump City! It's a beautiful day at 7:30 AM and we're waking you up with 10 consecutive top hits after this!" came an ultra-chipper voice. The young woman shot up in bed with shock at the noise, looking around as though fearing an attack. When she saw that she was in her own bedroom, she breathed a sigh of relief and shut the radio off. She had had trouble falling asleep the night before, and she had been listening to the radio to calm her nerves. Sighing, she climbed slowly out of bed, feeling a bit disoriented.

She had been dreaming of _him _again. It had been a while since last time. It felt strange to her. She knew what he looked like now: tall with long, flowing black hair. Now, he was Nightwing. He was no longer the boy she had known when she was a teenager hopelessly smitten. And yet she still dreamed of him as he had been before. When he had been the short, thin, almost awkward teenage superhero with a knack for overreacting over things. She never had dreams about who he was now. She didn't even think that he cared anymore. She wanted to remember, subconsciously, the way he had been when he had cared for her so deeply. Back when he had been her best friend.

As Starfire passed by the mirror, she glanced at her reflection. She had grown taller than she had been back in those teenage years. Her face had barely changed, and the only thing that had happened to her fiery red hair was its growing longer and hanging even lower down her back. She was no longer so much of the ignorant foreigner she had once been. Though she still had a strange aversion to contractions, and she still possessed her fierce alien powers, she could now be mistaken for an average American woman. She _had _turned into a woman over the years, though not enough to forget Robin entirely.

It wasn't as though there had never been anything between them. Close to the time when Robin swiftly and suddenly brought the Teen Titans to a halt and left Jump City, when they were nineteen, he and Starfire had finally confessed the feelings that they had hidden for so long. For a few glorious weeks, they had both been happier than ever before in their young lives. And then, at the end, Robin had regretfully broken it off with the simple explanation that 'it would be too hard to deal with all the memories'. She had understood his reasons. It would indeed be hard to have each other around to bring up memories of the golden age when the Titans had had Jump City under their watchful eye night and day, of the things that would never be again. But it didn't mean that she wished he hadn't. She found that even without him, memories were impossible to escape. Though she had moved on with her life, she could not forget him or her friends. She had not seen or spoken to any of them since the day the Teen Titans ended.

Starfire shook herself out of her thoughts. She was going to be late for work. She had been working off and on at different places. She continued to get fired because despite all her time on Earth, there were still things that she found herself not understanding without Robin's guidance.

"Starfire, you are being ridiculous. You must learn to forget him. He has certainly forgotten you. It is something you must accept," she said aloud. She hurried to get ready for work, taking as quick of a shower as she could and throwing on some clothes (all in purple as usual. She could still not bring herself to break Tamaranian tradition). She glanced at the clock when she was prepared and realized that she still had a few minutes left before she needed to leave. Upon seeing this, she moved over to the window that looked over the streets of Jump City below. Over the houses and restaurants and business buildings, she could still see the shape of the giant T standing alone on the island in the bay. It had stood untouched for all these years, and she wondered if the things they had left behind still sat in their original places, still waiting for the five Teen Titans to return from a battle that they did not fight.

There were increased rates of crime in the city these days. Now all there was to rely on was the police and the occasional appearances of the noble vigilante Nightwing, who spent most of his time in Gotham. If he were still the Robin she had known as a teenager, he would never let the city grow so decadent. He would have done something.

"Oh Robin, where are you?" she asked softly to the cold glass of the windowpane.

She was pulled out of her silent reverie by the loud, blaring ring of the phone. Sighing, she walked over and picked it up.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Star?" asked a voice. Starfire's mind spun with disbelief mixed with joy. She could not believe she was hearing this familiar voice after all these years.

"Cyborg!" she said, eyes widening.

"Star, it is you," Cyborg said, sounding almost surprised to be hearing her. "I was starting to think I'd never find this number."

"I am glad you found it, Cyborg. How have you been?" Starfire asked happily, her normal cheerful nature returning at the sound of her friend's voice.

"Not so good, lately. Star, I'm really sorry I have to ruin your day with this, but I have some bad news."

"What is it?" Starfire asked, tensing up slightly.

"There's been an accident," Cyborg said, his voice sounding almost strangled.

"What do you mean?"

"It's Robin. He's…well…he was here in the city and there was a disturbance…so needless to say, he had to do something about it. It was…Slade," Cyborg said softly. Starfire gasped slightly, and Cyborg continued. "We fought Slade so many times, we thought he was gone by now, but he just….appeared out of nowhere. Robin's done it before but…not without us in there somewhere to back him up. I guess he bit off more than he could chew."

"What are you trying to say, Cyborg?" Starfire asked, her throat starting to tighten.

Cyborg sucked in a long breath. "Well…Star…Robin…he…" he coughed and continued. "I'm so, so sorry Star, but…Robin is dead."

Eyes widening, Starfire gasped. The phone slowly slid out of her limp hand and onto the floor as she started to shake. She had to keep control. She couldn't lose it, she-…she did. Starfire collapsed onto the carpet as the tears started to come, acrid streams burning her eyes and leaping forward onto the floor as she started to sob uncontrollably, unable to hear anything but her own misery.

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**Yay! I'm horrible! If you are patient, more of the story will come to you. **


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